CME INDIA Presentation by ⚜ Dr. M. Gowri Sankar, MD, Senior Assistant Professor, Dept. of General Medicine, Government Medical College and ESI Hospital, Coimbatore.
Today’s History Feature:
Dr. George Whipple
(Aug 28,1878 – Feb 1,1976)
💠 American Physician & Pathologist
His contributions…
- Whipple belonged to the third generation of a physician family. Unfortunately, he lost his father when he was two years old. He studied medicine at Johns Hopkins University and received his M.D. degree in 1905.
- After his studies, Dr. Whipple started his career as an assistant in the Department of Pathology at Johns Hopkins Medical School and got promoted as a Professor in pathology in 1914.
- Later he became a founding Dean of the University of Rochester School of Medicine in 1921.
- He contributed himself to various fields of medicine such as in hepatology, hematology and general pathology.
- His groundbreaking works…
- 🔅First to describe Whipple’s disease or Intestinal lipodystrophy and its causative bacteria Tropheryma whipplei.
- 🔅Demonstrated liver is the site for fibrinogen synthesis.
- 🔅Worked on liver cell repair and regeneration.
- 🔅Published mechanism of Hemoglobin ➡ Bilirubin formation ➡ Bile pigment formation and its excretion from liver.
- 🔅Demonstrated pigments related to liver necrosis caused by chloroform anaesthesia.
- 🔅Gave the name “Thalasemia” to the Mediterranean anemia of Cooley.
- 🔅Did experimental work in anemia, and thereby established iron as the most potent factor involved in the formation of red blood cells.
- 🔅Also, he published his experiments on dogs that raw or cooked beef liver are a treatment for pernicious anemia.
- Eventually, he was honored with shared Noble Prize of Physiology or Medicine in 1934 “for the discoveries related to liver extract therapy in cases of pernicious anemia.”
- He had a lifelong friendship with Dr. Allen Whipple, an American surgeon, who described the Whipple’s procedure and the Whipple’s triad.
- In fact, Dr. George Whipple was an inspiring physician and a dedicated teacher. In his autobiography, he wrote “I would be remembered as a teacher.”
A Day to Commemorate…
An Outstanding Teacher & Medical Researcher.
Dr. George Whipple🙏🏼
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